Senate leaders set Fla. budget deficit options
TALLAHASSEE (AP) – Florida Senate leaders outlined a list of options for dealing with a nearly $2.3 billion budget deficit Wednesday as the full 40-member chamber held a rare out-of-session meeting to get briefed on the state’s dismal economic outlook.
The alternatives include spending cuts, making permanent a 4 percent hold on spending Gov. Charlie Crist already has ordered and taking more money out of a reserve fund, but no tax increases, at least for now.
Ways and Means Chairman JD Alexander, R-Lake Wales, presented the list after the briefing, and Senate President Jeff Atwater, R-North Palm Beach, immediately endorsed it.
“The constitution does not provide us the luxury of spending money we do not have,” Atwater said “We’re in a place that the constitution forbids us to keep going, and we must act on it.”
Atwater also has ordered Senate budget committees back to Tallahassee next week to work on the deficit as a prelude to a likely special legislative session, possibly in January.
“I personally see no other way to right the budget than for us as a legislative body to address it,” Atwater said.
The Republican-controlled Legislature does not convene in regular session until March, but that could be too late to make budget cuts before money is spent as the fiscal year will be half over at the end of December. House budget committees also will meet next week.
The state began the fiscal year with a $66 billion budget – $6 billion less than last year. Revenues – mainly sales tax as Florida has no personal income tax – have fallen short of expectations, creating the deficit.
State economists last month predicted a $2.14 billion deficit, but a new forecast of 100,000 more patients in the Medicaid program this year has deepened the hole to $2.29 billion.
Lawmakers also will be facing a $3.8 billion gap in the next budget year, which begins July 1, just to keep existing programs going and pay for other “musts” such as Medicaid, public schools and prisons.
Legislative economist Amy Baker told the Senate the latest revenue estimate is based on the assumption that tight credit, a major factor in the national and global recessions, will begin loosening by March, but if that doesn’t happen the deficit will get bigger.
People won’t be able to buy homes, cars and other major purchases that generate tax revenue.